The best BBQ chicken in the world is “beer in the butt” chicken. I heard about this way of cooking chicken on a grill many years ago, tried it and was hooked. Apparently, I am not the only one. I did a Google search and found more than 16,000,000 entries for beer in the butt chicken on the web.

I used to roast chicken in the oven using a vertical stand, sometimes referred to as an Eiffel Tower, like the one here. This always cooked the chicken faster, evenly all around and kept it moist inside. Then I heard about the modification of supporting the chicken on a beer can and using the beer in the can to steam heat the chicken from the inside.

Now, the only chicken I cook on the grill is beer in the butt chicken. I take a can of beer, drink half of it, and shove the open can up the chicken’s butt.

I then sprinkle a thick coating of seasonings, usually salt and pepper, some lemon zest, powered garlic and onion and some BBQ rub, like Gates BBQ rub. The top of the chicken- the neck- should be sealed up either with tin foil or with folding the skin and latching with a toothpick. This keeps the steam inside and gives it a chance to condense and cook. It takes about 45 minutes for the steam to heat the inside and the outside to roast over the grill.

The only reason I have cans of beer in the house is for this dish. I personally prefer Fat Tire beer, when I am in a beer mood, which does not come in cans. I’ve tried a few different kinds of beer inside the chicken, but the choice doesn’t seem to affect the final chicken flavor.

Finally, for our 19th anniversary, Susan bought me an iGrill which I love using when making beer in the butt chicken, and most other BBQ dishes.

A temperature sensor sticks inside the meat that is cooking. It connects to a small controller sitting by the grill monitoring the thermometer temperature and transmitting it over Bluetooth to my iPhone.

All I have to do is look at my iPhone periodically and I see the current temperature of the meat, a plot of the temperature rise over time and even an estimate on when will it reach the final temperature. And, of course, there is an alarm that goes off when the temperature hits the set value.

What a great combination for a geek guy: it’s about BBQ, it’s got a sensor, it’s on an iPhone and it shows data plotted with some analysis! What could be cooler than this?